Friday, July 22, 2011

Luck was on my side. I was fortunate to have won a £100 Gift Voucher from Asos via Wantlet and Sweet of PensandLens(thank you, thank you, mwuaaah!). With that, I searched Asos for that perfect pair of nude pumps.

I think I scanned through every shoe that they had and this was the only one that matched my preferences (and budget!). I'm not into sophisticated shoes - I go for the simple ones. Also, this is not what you'd normally consider nude since it's taupe. But I like it still!

The shoe has been delivered and I'm wondering when I'll get to wear it since it's about 5 inches high! I can't wear it for my corporate attire day in school since I'll be up and down flights of stairs. I might not only break my ankle if I get into an accident but might also break my neck!haha

I know not everyone adores pumps, much more, the nude ones, but I am currently loving this trend.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

It was so hot yesterday and all I thought of was food. Maybe the heat made me hungry and bored.

And so I made a tuna pizza! I was inspired to blog about this after 2 food bloggers commented on my last post. ;-)

When I cook, I always play by my own rules. I make my own list of ingredients, and sometimes, my own measurements, so bear with me. Also, I got so excited because it would be the first time I will get to use my new (old) Cook's Notes. It's something I bought from Booksale over a month ago. It's a notebook, just that.

So here's what I made.

Presenting, my first attempt at pizza!

Tuna Pizza a la Simonette

Here's what you'll need (assuming you're also making one, haha!)

the dry ingredients

the wet ingredients

For the dough:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tbsp salt

80mL water

80mL fresh milk

1 tbsp cooking oil

Notice there's no yeast? I purposely used a recipe without yeast because we had none! haha :) Original recipe for the dough can be found at Easy Pizza Crusts.com. I just substituted the water with milk. Because I wanted to.

Never forget to pre-heat the oven. Set it to 400 degrees, according to the website. But I set mine to 395 degrees farenheit. Oil the pizza pan if you have one. In my case, I used our trusty Tefal pan.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Gradually stir in the liquids.

Knead the dough. Because I had no rolling pin, I used a tall glass to flatten the dough out. See how I tried to improvise on a lot of things for this recipe?

I rolled in the edges after flattening it out. I have read somewhere that this actually helps in keeping the toppings within the pizza.

For the topping, I used my imagination (or basically what was available at home).

- Hunt's tomato ketchup sachets which I got for free from McDonald's.

Here in the Philippines, you can just go to the counter and ask for more condiments. :) They give them to you in sachets. I know they don't do that in other countries.

- canned Tuna flakes in oil, drained

- a whole tomato, sliced

- a whole onion, sliced

- a clove of garlic, diced

- cheese, grated

Just layer and you're set for baking!

I placed the cheese inside the freezer so I had trouble holding it, it was soooo cold! Which explains why there isn't that much cheese on my pizza.

Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on the thickness of your crust.

Serves about 2 people, depending on how hungry you are.

I could have finished this on my own but I saved some for my mother and brother.

The verdict.

I loved my pizza.I love pizza and I love tuna.

I should have made the crust thinner though, it would have been perfect for a thin-crust pizza.

My mother loved the crust, but hated the smell of tuna.

My brother said the crust should have been thinner, and less tomatoes and onion (he doesn't like them).

More cheese. I totally forgot about adding more before eating because I was too excited.

Eat while it's hot.

My self-rating? 8.5/10. Not bad for a first time. It just lacked some taste though (more cheese, more, more!!).

I'm trying chicken next time. Or white sauce.

But I'm also thinking of Fish in Thai sauce.. ooohhh. I'm hungry again!

Friday, July 15, 2011

I have been MIA for weeks because I was busy with other stuff. And somehow, I got bored with my laptop I didn't want to use it. Yes, as simple as that.

But today, I can't help but post about this guilt I am feeling right now.

It started days ago when I realized that a dog (which eventually affected the dog house and thus the rest of the dogs) has been infected with those tick, lice and fleas (okay, I don't know the difference so let's just address them as parasites). The three less-than-month old puppies were infected with lots, and i say LOTS of parasites. I read over the internet that you should consult your vet first before you apply anything on puppies less than 3 months old.

But I was hardheaded. The pups were looking healthy anyway, so I still went on and powdered one puppy with a flea powder. Just a little dash of powder though. Good thing I didn't see the effect immediately so I didn't apply powder on the others. I just painstakingly plucked those parasites out of their body. But of course, it didn't finish all those parasites. So the next day, I went to the pet shop (finally) and asked for the best solution. I totally forgot about the powder so I didn't mention it anyway. They gave me this herbal spray which was okay to be used for 3-week old pups. I also bought a solution to be sprayed for the dog house.

The next morning, I excitedly sprayed on the pups and saw that it was working! I was hopeful that finally those parasites will be gone.

Now about 3 days after, I saw one puppy noisily sleeping. I thought maybe it was just dreaming.

How cute, I thought.

I left home at around 6am to get my brother to school. By the time I got home, my mother told me to pass by the back door. She then said that one puppy died. It was the dreaming puppy. And then it dawned on me, it was the puppy which I powdered.

My mother asked me to dig a hole in our backyard. I didn't want to. But she was busy doing some gardening and no one else was left to do it. So I had to. For the first time in my life, I dug a grave. There had been many dead pets in our family but this one is different. I feel like I was the one who killed it. Negligence. If only the pets could sue, I would have been guilty of negligence for administering a poisonous substance. But I was only thinking of their health. Nonetheless, I was negligent.

So I finished digging a tiny grave. I couldn't get myself to bury a puppy so it was my mother who buried it. It's mother was there, watching. I was watching from afar too.

I have never felt this kind of guilt before. It's life we're talking about, and I wasted it. I used to not feel much for dead puppies because I've seen our dogs give birth to abnormal puppies which die the next day. The last time I cried for a puppy was when my dog, after giving birth, sat on her puppy. It wasn't able to breath, and it died! She was in a place where I couldn't pull her so I wanted to strangle her after! She wasn't the mommy type anyway.

Anyway, after everything that happened today, I vowed to always take care of my pets. And I'm going to finish all those parasites! Watch out! If only I could stop those neighboring dogs from entering our property. hmph. And if only the unnamed puppy could hear me in the afterlife, I'm sorry. I really am. :(

As for this blog, I'm planning on taking a serious step. haha!

I'm now trying to learn, or maybe I'm now teaching myself, the value of DISCIPLINE.

Wish me luck! :)

*edit*
I was reading a friend's post today and saw that she was happy her page rank on Google has leveled up. I went to check mine since it has been 0/10 all along. I was so happy to see this:

Finally, some progress. Which means I really should work on my self-discipline!
And I wouldn't deny the fact that 20sb and blog hops helped me get this. And to my friends who constantly check my blog. haha :)